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Egypt: 2 swine flu cases at American University in Cairo

The Associated Press
Published: Monday, June 8, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, June 8, 2009 at 12:59 a.m.
CAIRO – The American University in Cairo says a dorm building housing foreigners is being quarantined for 24 hours after two American students were diagnosed with swine flu.

Rehab Saad from the university’s public relations office said Monday the two cases were discovered Sunday night along with a third suspected case. All three have been hospitalized.

The dorm in the Zamalek area of Cairo houses about 100 students.

It was not known where the students contracted the disease.

Egypt announced its first confirmed swine flu case June 2 after an Egyptian-American girl arriving in the country tested positive.

Egypt’s government has come under criticism for its decision to slaughter the nation’s pigs in response to the swine flu problem.

Two U.S. students at the American University in Cairo have been diagnosed with swine flu, the university said on Monday, with their dormitory under quarantine after a third suspected case was discovered.

“There are two American students who came here on May 28 and the ministry of health has confirmed that they are sick with the A(H1N1) virus,” university spokeswoman Rehab Saad told news agency AFP.

The two students are being treated in hospital along with a third suspected infected American, Saad said, adding that their dormitory on the central Cairo island of Zamalek had been placed under quarantine.

“The dorm of around 140 has been quarantined for 24 hours, the ministry of health is taking samples and the results are expected soon,” Saad said.

A 12-year-old girl who had travelled from the United States last week became Egypt and Africa’s first case of swine flu.

Egypt, the most populous Arab country, began a controversial cull of the country’s estimated 250,000 pigs after initial reports of swine flu outbreaks in other countries.

The World Health Organisation has said the drastic measure is not scientifically justified.

Egyptian media have reported that more than 150,000 pigs have been culled so far, with many of them later buried in hazardous waste disposal sites.

The authorities have stepped up measures to check travellers at airports for the virus, quarantining suspected cases in makeshift centres.

Egypt is already battling bird flu, which has killed 27 people since it was first reported in 2006.

In rural areas poultry are traditionally raised on rooftops, often in close proximity to young children, many of whom have become victims of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza.